Inhaltsverzeichnis für July 2018 in Flying

Charles Lindbergh. William Ziff. Richard Collins. Whenever I think of Flying magazine, these three names spring to mind first. The excitement that enthralled the world after Lindbergh’s solo New York to Paris flight in May 1927 compelled a young Bill Ziff Sr. to found a monthly journal devoted to personal flying, published for the first time in August of that year. The pilot in the leather flying helmet you see at the top left corner of this page is indeed the Lone Eagle, created as an homage from a photograph taken at the Ryan Aircraft factory in San Diego during construction of The Spirit of St. Louis in the spring of 1927. Without Lindbergh and Ziff, this magazine, esteemed in the aviation publishing world, wouldn’t exist. Without Dick Collins, Flying…

Personal tracking devices like Garmin’s inReach Mini provide peace of mind not only to the person carrying it, but also to those who depend upon the inReach user. Weighing in at 4.23 ounces, the impact- and water-resistant device makes a perfect addition to any flight bag. Whether on the grid or off, the inReach Mini connects to the rest of the world through the Iridium satellite network to provide position tracking, interactive SOS services with emergency responders and two-way text messaging, even when outside areas of regular cellphone coverage. The device links to a wide variety of compatible products, such as Garmin’s Pilot app and the aviation-specific D2 Charlie watch, as well as maps, aerial imagery and NOAA charts and some weather services. The inReach Mini rechargeable lithium battery lasts…

Butte, Montana, and its Bert Mooney Airport (BTM) are nestled snuggly between the Yellowstone and Glacier national parks in the southwestern portion of the state, where copper mining was once the primary economic driver. The Butte VOR-A approach to Mooney Airport seems pretty straightforward, but remember, of course, that any approach without a runway number indicates the final approach course does not technically meet the definition of a straight-in. The VOR-A’s R098 final approach course is pretty close, and should, under no-wind conditions, offer a glimpse of Runway 12 out the left front cockpit window if the weather permits. Bert Mooney Airport’s field elevation is 5,551 feet, with terrain rising another 3,000 feet just east, adding a few challenges during the approach. The right turn during the missed approach demands…

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Each spring, as college campuses buzz with the anxiety and anticipation of final-exam week, a select handful of students become laser focused on a different kind of test — the intercollegiate national flying championships, an aviation skills competition that pits some of the best and brightest young pilots from around the country against one another to vie for the chance to lead their school’s flight program to victory. This year, 383 students from 28 schools participated in what has come to be called the Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (Safecon), held April 30 to May 5 at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, a quick hop southwest from Indianapolis. For budding young pilots who flew themselves to the competition in their schools’ airplanes, the journey was the longest cross-country many…

During a recent recurrent training period in our human factors class, the check airman instructor asked for a show of hands for those who had experienced an engine failure during their careers at the airline. The classroom consisted of about 30 well-seasoned pilots. Barely a quarter of the class raised their hands. The same question was asked for anyone who had experienced more than one engine failure. I scanned the room. My hand was the only one raised. Really? The instructor’s question was a prelude to video re-creations of some real-life emergency events experienced by fellow crewmembers that we were about to watch and evaluate. I had never really dwelt on my engine failure experiences, the memory of the adrenalin rush long since forgotten. Many years ago, at a commuter…

In the early days of airborne communications, earphones were created to make deciphering radio conversations for pilots easier above the roar of the engines and wind. Some of the first earphones crafted from hard Bakelite used no padding and were extremely uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time. Advances in acoustical research improved the wearing comfort of headsets by adding flexible cups that totally covered the ears, although they only muted some of flying’s more annoying noises. While experts claimed our sense of hearing was nearly as critical to flying as a keen sense of sight, it wasn’t until about 30 years ago that engineers realized the importance of blending comfort with advances in hearing protection. Research, in fact, shows unprotected exposure to noise levels greater than 90 db,…

The crumpled Bonanza lay in a field of corn stubble. The eastern Colorado terrain was flat for miles around. It was hard to see how even a complete loss of power should have led to anything worse than a little scraped metal, but evidently the airplane was out of control when it hit the ground. It had cartwheeled before coming to rest, its cabin crushed. Its two occupants died: the owner of the airplane, a nonpilot who had bought it three days before, and an instructor who was taking him to a business meeting that day and intended, in the future, to teach him to fly his newly acquired machine. The log of the instructor pilot, 35, showed 467 total hours. Pilots who had flown with him, including the seller…

Lancair split the difference between the speed benefit of complex landing gear and the insurance benefits of fixed wheels by designing an automatic nose gear retraction system. Lancair claims the system adds a significant amount of speed since the nose gear is right in line with the turbulent prop wash. This unusual configuration makes the Mako look more like a bird of prey than an underwater predator. Insurance companies have responded favorably, and the rates are only slightly greater than those of a Cirrus of similar value, says Lancair International owner Mark Huffstutler. There are three single lights that show the status of the nose gear: Green means gear down and locked; red means unsafe or in transit; and yellow means pump in operation. All lights are extinguished when the…

An acquaintance named Mark Burton recently sent me a copy of his book about an airport owned and operated by his family called Brownie’s. A few days later, I met a guy at a party who regaled me (unsolicited) with wild and woolly tales about flying out of a now defunct airport called Brownie’s with his father, who kept an airplane there. I know it, and found, on Paul Freeman’s great site Abandoned and Little Known Airfields (airfields-freeman.com), lots of early Brownie’s lore and photos in the Southwestern Ohio section. So it seemed like the synergy was there to share my memories of this rather unique ’drome. I’m not sure how I first found it; I suspect it was my friend Tom Byrne who pointed it out when we were…

Canard airplanes were the rage in the 1970s. The VariEze took the homebuilding world — which Jim Bede’s BD-5 had recently taken by storm — by storm. Storms were frequent those days; it was also in the 1970s that T-tails took general aviation by storm and popped up in a lot of places they had no reason to be. But the canard storm was something special. For a while, it seemed that every new design was a canard. There were Quickies and Dragonflys and Cozys and Defiants and Velocitys, Avtek and OMAC and Jetcruzer and on and on. Beech got into the act at the start of the next decade with the Starship, a giant 2,000-hp VariEze. The Starship flopped, Avtek and OMAC and Jetcruzer fizzled, but the spell of…

RELEVANT DISCUSSION: 91.215, 91.217, 91.135, 91.411, 91.413, 99.13, 121.345, 135.143, AIM 3-2-3, 3-2-4, 4-1-20, 5-6-4, 6-2-2, 6-4-2, FAA-H-8083-16, 8083-25 • Required for all aircraft in Class A, B and C airspace. • Required for all aircraft in all airspace within 30 nm of an airport listed in appendix D, section 1 of Part 91 (Class B and military) from the surface upward to 10,000 feet msl. • Notwithstanding the 30 nm rule, any aircraft that was not originally certified with an engine-driven electrical system or that has not subsequently been certified with one, or a balloon or glider, may conduct operations in the airspace within 30 nm of an airport listed in appendix D, section 1 of Part 91, provided such operations are conducted outside any Class A, B or…

When John came to in the hospital a number of years ago after a lapse of consciousness, you will appreciate that the very first concern he expressed was for his aviation medical certificate. Perhaps the most significant and deeply personal touchpoint with the FAA for every pilot is the medical certification process. To a pilot, the ability to fly is a profoundly important part of their very being. FAA medical certificates are issued by the Aerospace Medical Certification Division (AMCD) in Oklahoma City. It is a part of the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI). John and I recently had the opportunity to tour CAMI, and we found everyone to be knowledgeable professionals committed to their mission “… to assure civil aerospace safety.” Considering the extreme importance to the pilot of…

If there’s one continuous strand that winds through the motley tapestry of my life, one single word that sums up who I am and what makes me tick, it’s wanderlust. My family, youth, career, marriage and passions for motorcycling, sailing and flying are all tied together by a constant, inveterate urge to head over the nearest horizon and see whatever’s worth seeing. Most of my friends, particularly those to whom I’m closest, are equally afflicted by the compulsion to roam. Given that, it’s not surprising that Edward Kraus and I became friends, or that his flying career took him to the other side of the world, or that he has thrived there as a transplanted stranger in a strange land. I first met Ed in the summer of 2001, when…

OK, I’ve whined enough about the new jet. I’ve moaned about the speedbrake-spoiler failure that occurs every time I get above Flight Level 300; about the fact that I will have to pay Williams for 150 hours per year on the engine program even though I won’t fly that much; about the ridiculous wait to get a letter of authorization for flight in RVSM airspace (how much fuel is wasted in the United States waiting for these letters as jets fly low, burning lots of jet-A?). Enough, already. How is it that somebody can be so lucky as to be born in this country and to have enjoyed not one but two great careers (cancer surgery and Part 135 flying), at least two great airplanes (Cheyenne I and this Premier),…